Downtown Spokane community responds to proposed 12% parking tax

Business leaders spoke out Monday night in opposition to a proposed 12% commercial parking tax under consideration by the Spokane City Council.

If passed, the tax would fund transportation maintenance and safety improvements in the city. At its core the tax is intended to encourage redevelopment of surface parking lots, which make up around 30% of downtown and peak at 56% usage.

Councilman Michael Cathcart questioned in a previous City Council meeting the efficacy of the lot-discouragement-by-tax approach, saying that it will likely be parkers rather than lot owners who bear the brunt of the financial burden.

The lot owners aren’t thrilled about the prospect either way. Local operations vice president for Diamond Parking, Andrea Pierce, spoke out against the proposal Monday.

“I would argue it’s an ineffective and indirect method that burdens parkers without result,” Pierce said, adding later that Diamond Parking has had increased security and cleanup expenses as well.

While some people are supportive of transforming downtown lots to buildings, they are concerned that taxing visitors will keep people from coming downtown.

“When we think about increasing the cost of patronizing downtown right now, discouraging visitation is the wrong message to send,” president and CEO of the Downtown Partnership Emilie Cameron said. “Downtown success is Spokane success. We need every job, every visitor, every investment back in our court.”

Spokane Business Association CEO Brad Barnett said that in the midst of all the progress downtown is seeing with changes to homelessness response, now is the “exact wrong time to impose a 12% parking tax on downtown.”

“I would challenge you that we will lose more than $2 million in tax revenue, because several businesses are going to look at this as the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Barnett said. “As a couple of our members said, ‘We can move eight blocks and not have to deal with this.’ ”

The association ran a full-page advertisement in Sunday’s Spokesman-Review urging the council to reject the tax proposal, citing the downtown’s 32% commercial vacancy rate and other challenges.

Stephanie Curran with the Public Facilities District requested that the council extend their decision -making process on the tax to make the final approach a “win-win for the city budget as well as for our business.” Parking revenue goes toward paying performers typically, she said.

“For example, on our family shows, we do parking rates at $10,” she said, adding that a dollar or so more can be a lot for families. “Our other prices are more like $30 to $40, we’re adding more. The parking garage at the convention center, hotel rates overnight are $40 to $50. So it’s quite a bit of money at 12%.”

No action was taken by the council Monday. The tax is slated for consideration again at the Nov. 17 City Council meeting.